JUST as Tony Blair has the Olympics as his sporting legacy, so Gordon Brown, his probable successor as Prime Minister, is backing a World Cup bid for 2018, so that he, too, will have an event by which he will be remembered.

Whitehall and football sources say that the Chancellor is keen for England to try to stage the tournament — the world’s biggest single sport event — for the first time since 1966.

The Government knows that the financial commitment for the Olympics is far greater than for the World Cup, which consists of only 32 squads taking part in one sport. In addition, all the necessary football stadiums are already built and the new 90,000-seat Wembley will be opening next year.

However, the FA still needs Government backing for areas such as transport and security, which is why a series of discussions started two years ago and will go on until 2009, when the campaign officially starts.

The vote will be taken in 2012. Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister, said yesterday: “We are a long way off. We are going through exactly the same process as we did for the Olympics. We were criticised for it but it was the right way forward. Tessa (Jowell, the Culture Secretary) and I visited quite a number of countries, who had staged or were going to stage the Olympics. We learnt a huge amount then and we came back with the British Olympic Association and we looked at a number of areas and what we should be presenting to Government.”

He said that he was not aware of any imminent decision about a definite bid for the World Cup. “We will look at all the facts,” he said. “It is not an emotive issue. It is calculated. We have learnt by our mistakes, I can assure you, in making bids, whether it is for Picketts Lock (the proposed stadium for the 2005 athletics World Championships) or World Cups, or the building of Wembley or the Dome .”

Hugh Robertson, the Shadow Minister for Sport, gave his backing, saying: “I entirely support the campaign to bring the 2018 World Cup to England. We have the most modern stadiums in the world, the distances between venues are relatively small and it is an entirely logical follow-up to hosting the 2012 Olympics.”

Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, has encouraged England to stage the event, saying that the world governing body would welcome a bid from “the homeland of football”. However, it is by no means certain that the event will come to Europe. Under the new rotation principle, the six confederations will host the event in turn. After Japan and South Korea in 2002, Germany next year, South Africa in 2010, and South America in

2014, it should go to either North America or Oceania in 2018. However, the 24-man executive committee of Fifa may decide that Europe, as the strongest and financially most powerful confederation, should have the tournament more frequently. Fifa has yet to announce when it will make this decision.

The FA clearly has an outstanding case should Europe get 2018. It has worked hard at establishing links with Third World countries, with events such as clinics and coaching courses, and the Barclays Premiership is also the best-known league. In addition, since 1966, all the four leading European countries have hosted the competition: Germany in 1974 and 2006, Spain in 1982, Italy in 1990 and France in 1998. And as Geoff Thompson, the FA chairman, has said: “I think that because of the number of countries taking part in a World Cup finals, it’s almost impossible for the smaller countries to host it.” After the experience of 2002, co-hosting has become unpopular with Fifa.

WAGES PUT ON THE AGENDA

THE regulation of agents, wage capping, club financing and a possible exemption for professional sport of the free movement of labour inside the European Union (EU) are among the topics set to be examined by a new inquiry by governments and the football authorities. Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister, has called a meeting for December 8 in an attempt to overhaul how football is run in Europe and to bring “credibility ” back to the sport.

Caborn has asked the sports ministers of Spain, Germany, France and Italy, representatives from the European Commission, Uefa, Fifa and the European professional leagues. Speaking about the possibility of wage-capping, Caborn said: “A number of clubs would like some restraint. However, they cannot do it individually.”

It has been suggested that some clubs would welcome players’ wages being limited to a certain percentage of the turnover. Members of the G14 group of leading clubs have suggested 70 per cent would be appropriate.

Caborn is looking for continued investment into grassroots football and stadia. He also wants the football bodies to take into account the EU’s 2000 Nice Declaration on Sport, which obliges federations to provide equal access for men and women and combat doping, violence and racist behaviour.

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